Ahead of a vote on whether to authorize a national strike by unionized Starbucks workers, a group of off-shift baristas at one of Central Florida’s only unionized locations gathered outside their store Wednesday afternoon to practice their picket line.
The action — posing little to no disruption to business inside the Oviedo location, with their fellow co-workers working as scheduled — was organized as part of a pressure campaign by their union, Starbucks Workers United.
The union, which represents more than 12,000 Starbucks baristas and shift supervisors, has been fighting for a contract since 2021, when workers at a Starbucks in Buffalo, New York voted to form the first unionized Starbucks in the U.S.
That victory has been a beacon of inspiration for local baristas, spurring a flurry of organizing efforts at Starbucks locations across the U.S. The movement has been driven largely by a workforce of younger, queer workers initially drawn to work at Starbucks by the coffee giant’s competitive pay (compared to other entry-level jobs) and its progressive branding.
Since the store in Buffalo unionized, Starbucks workers at more than 650 locations in 45 states — including states like North Carolina, where unions are less common — have similarly voted to join the Workers United.
For Kevin Beljan, a barista of seven years at the Oviedo store, the fight for a strong union contract is a noble cause he believes is worth the challenge.
“I think that it has far-reaching implications,” he told Orlando Weekly Tuesday, as co-workers beside him flashed signs with messages like “No contract? No coffee!”
Beljan’s not wrong. Workers for the burrito chain Chipotle (whose former CEO now leads Starbucks) and Trader Joe’s, for instance, have named Starbucks workers as inspiration for their own union drives, too.
“After seeing the victories at Starbucks, it was like ‘Oh, my God, we can accomplish this,’” one Chipotle worker told the Washington Post in 2022 after workers at her Michigan restaurant voted to join the Teamsters. “A lot of young people are in favor of unionizing but thought it would never happen here,” the worker added. “That realism is what is keeping a lot of us down right now. Getting this far shows us we do have to try, because we can succeed.”
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Securing an initial union contract, however, can take well over a year — an analysis by Bloomberg found this can take 465 days on average.
Although progress has been made on finalizing a union contract — including tentative agreements on non-economic items, such as anti-discrimination protections — the union says the company has failed to meet their demands on economic issues, such as pay and scheduling.
After reaching a tentative deal with the coffee giant earlier this year, union members serving as delegates for their stores overwhelmingly rejected it, called Starbucks’ economic offer “insufficient.” The company, however, claims that the union has been the party unwilling to listen.
“Workers United only represents around 4 percent of our partners but chose to walk away from the bargaining table. If they’re ready to come back, we’re ready to talk,” Jaci Anderson, a Starbucks spokesperson, told Orlando Weekly in a statement following initial publication of this story online.
The tentative agreement reached between the two parties earlier this year guaranteed annual raises of at least 2 percent, according to Bloomberg, but did not offer any immediate pay raise guarantees. On average, unionized workers earn 12.8 percent more than nonunion workers in comparable jobs, and the spillover effects of unionization can also force employers to raise standards for nonunion workers, too.
Starting pay at the Oviedo location in Seminole County is currently listed by the company at $16.50 to $18.73. A living wage in Seminole is considered closer to $25 for a single, childless adult.
The union has proposed a starting wage of at least $20 an hour, equal to $41,600 annually if one is working full time. Starbucks, on the other hand, says they already offer the “best job in retail, including more than $30 an hour on average in pay and benefits” for hourly workers.
But that pay, and job security, isn’t guaranteed either. In a major shakeup, Starbucks recently announced plans to close 1 percent of its U.S. stores by the end of 2025, including 59 locations that are unionized. The union has criticized this move, pointing in part to the generous compensation package of nearly $100 million gifted to CEO Brian Niccol last year.
According to a report from the AFL-CIO, a national federation of labor unions, Niccol made 6,666 times the pay of the average Starbucks barista in 2024.
“I think there’s a massive imbalance,” said Beljan, the Oviedo barista. The most important fight by the union, he believes, is to hold Starbucks accountable for their treatment of workers, to “stop this corporate greed,” and to give more power to the rank-and-file like him who “generate the profit for this company.”
Beljan’s never been a union member before this experience and admitted that, compared to what he hears from baristas in places like Philadelphia and New York City — where the percentage of unionized workers is much higher — organizing a strong union in Florida is “an uphill battle.”
“We’re in a deep red state, and it’s more of an uphill battle than in, say, a blue state. But again, for me, you know, it’s worth it to see this through.”
His co-worker Regan Schneider, a barista who transferred to the union Starbucks about a year ago, has similarly been inspired by the union. She previously worked at a non-union Starbucks in Port Charlotte. Although she’s getting ready to leave Starbucks to work as a teacher, she said the experience has inspired her to be an advocate for unions moving forward.
“I think there is this idea that you are more protected if you are neutral, but the truth is, you’re not protected if you’re neutral,” she said. “You need to show your support, whether that’s for the union or against the union.”
Starbucks has been accused of hundreds of unfair labor practices by the union over the years of the organizing drive — essentially, accusations of violating workers’ rights under federal labor law. That includes allegations of illegally firing, surveilling, or threatening the benefits of workers who are involved in union organizing activity.
“I’ve basically been harassed and targeted because of my involvement,” Beljan admitted. Still, he added that, at least with the union, “there’s also mechanisms to fight that that wouldn’t normally be there. And there’s also mechanisms for, like, accountability for management and people above me.”
Schneider said Starbucks, a multibillion dollar company with unionized workers in other countries such as Chile, should be prepared for a fight ahead. “They need to learn to either fight with us,” she paused. “Or, to just get ready for a bigger fight.”
A strike by the union would require a majority of the union’s 500+ delegates to vote in favor of authorizing their union to call for a strike action. It’s not something that a union leader could call for, or force workers to engage in unilaterally. According to Beljan, the strike authorization vote is currently underway.
This post has been updated to include comment from a Starbucks spokesperson that was provided over email after the initial publication of this story.
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